Physical and Mental Effects of Foot Baths Among Women in Labor: Protocol for a Pre-Post Test Experimental Design.

Background: Foot baths are used in complementary and alternative therapy to improve the duration and quality of sleep and reduce tension, anxiety, fatigue, and confusion. They are also known to improve the frequency of labor contractions and to increase their duration in women; thus, they are commonly used by midwives in clinical settings in Japan. However, the physical and mental effects of foot baths during labor are unknown.

von Recklinghausen disease in a patient with X-linked agammaglobulinemia.

A 33-year-old man was referred to our hospital because of intractable cellulitis in his left lower leg. He was diagnosed with agammaglobulinemia at the age of 6 years and had been receiving gamma-globulin supplementation since then. Laboratory examination revealed a markedly reduced number of B cells, decreased protein amount of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) in monocytes, and a single base substitution of C994-->T(missense mutation of Arg288-->Trp) in BTK gene, confirming the diagnosis of X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA).